A while back I wrote a post about the D-ed Pool, the little corner of hell to which are consigned the ICT dead-ends that are an inevitable part of life in education.
It’s had a bit of interest mainly thanks to the current debate about whether the VLE is starting its death rattle (see Steve Wheeler’s blog for the start of hostilities!).
But I want to inaugurate the D-ed pool with one of our well-intentioned cul-de-sacs; the Siemens Fujitsu EDA.
Hopes were high for this device a few years back, a ruggedised PDA, preloaded with GPS and a host of education-friendly software. We bought a class set with European funding for a local history transition project to use with the excellent Mediascape.
The project was well planned by the local teachers and Sue Finnigan our assistant manager, and it was all going splendidly – until we tried using the EDA’s in the field…
As an idea they were great but design flaws and software problems meant they’ve stayed in the cupboard. It was little things like:
- the promised class-set charging dock never materialised
- the rubber casing hides the charging light so you can’t see if they’ve charged
- GPS problems meant accurate fixes were just about impossible
- The camera and sound recorder was so poor quality they were unusable
- You could create slideshows in the EDA but they were impossible to export to view on a PC
- they used Windows Mobile 5 - eugh! Not good for education.
The overall feeling was of a device that despite some nice software ideas (Red Halo) they’d been bodged to fit a particular market niche without a huge amount of though or care. They were discontinued pretty soon after release.
I know Wolverhampton LA used them extensively but have moved on now. We just never had any joy out of them.
And they just weren’t cool enough.
Was your experience different?
4 Comments until now
Hi Chris,
Came across this posting from a Tweet from @timbuckteeth. Shame about the EDAs; was it the tool which failed to live up to the promise (might the latest generation do a better job – iPhones etc.?) or were the project participants (students, teachers) perhaps not quite ready?
Give my regards to the rest of the team (I used to be you!) and I might catch you on TELIC – I start year 2 shortly. What a small world!
Hi Ian,
I’d say it was the kit. The staff and students handled the complexities of MediaScape, audio and image editing fine. It fell apart at the point that we tried to use the GPS facility. It had worked with a test machine but the variability of service between 20 machines meant we had no confidence in it. Thankfully, the important learning aspects had happened in the previous stages of the project – the fieldwork was going to be the icing on te cake – turned out to be marzipan!
Looking forward to seeing you at SHU. Small world indeed – I’m convinced that only 15 people live in sheffield and just keep swapping hats.
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